How to teach in a power outage

#rd hour was going great. Almost half of my kids did their homework (it's a rough class) and everyone was working away on their peer edits--making sure their classmates bumped up their grades a bit.

I walked back to my desk to see what I could from the back of the room and grab something or other and
BAM
blackout.

not really BAM per say, it was more of a bewooowwwwmmmm- silence. Absolute chaos ensued.

My classroom was mostly just mildly surprised and everyone was a tad confused- but the 6th grader down the hall were yelling, screaming in pure terror! Oh did I mention that they actually have WINDOWS in those classrooms? So here are my precious 9th graders, calmly taking out cell phone to light the way, opening doors and staying seated just waiting until I figure out what's going on.

Little do they know, the dark is what I'm most afraid of. Terrified really. I can't stand it.

SO we trudge out to the hallway where there's a bit more light, but it's super loud and freeeeing because the heat is electric and they just get right back to work. Love them.

Anyway, we get ushered into another teacher's room and keep working. Eventually the kids are let out to go get lunch in the pitch dark lunch room (I refused to help until my need for a fork forced me in) and then they're told to return to their 3rd hour classroom. Back they come to me and we just sit and eat lunch and they ask me questions after question.

What's your husband's name?
major?
age?
where'd you get married?
Why?
What kind of music do you like?
What is the longest time you've spent doing the same thing at one time? ( writing an outline, 8 hours)


It was exhausting but fun! I loved being able to tell them about my life and to be a real person just stuck in a blackout with them! But my favorite part was when they all asked
"well can't we just stay with you 4th hour and talk, someone can cover your class and who care if we go to ours?"

love them.

still had to go to class :/

luckily for me 4th hour was held in the library and by 2:20 we had a total of 5 people left after the mass parental concern took most kids home.


Moral of the story? Sometimes it snow. And when it snows, sometimes people run into electrical poles and blow a school's power for a day. It rocks.
I love being a teacher.

10 things I love about you

On the tenth day of Christmas your true love gives to you........
the top ten most wonderful things I love about you!

1. I love the way you dance around with all your long limbs wiggling and jiggling when you take study breaks and come visit me in the living room. It makes me laugh and remember why I love your goofiness.

2. I love that you let me take you shopping sometimes and you try things on that you may not like at first just so I can play dress up with my personal Ken doll :)

3. I love when you squeal when I put my cold toes on you and you shrivel up into a little ball when I reven threaten to touch your face with my cold finger tips. But then you relax and let me warm them up, all the while holding in the pain of freezing digits on your warm skin. Hey!

4. I love watching movies with you. Not just the watching part--the whole thing. The walk down to the redbox, the argument over hot chocolate (inevitable), the arranging the couch with blankies and sufficient amounts of pillows, the sudden urge for popcorn (that I sometimes get to beg for ;)), and the last question before the movie- "do you want to (finish some bizzarre craft) or can I turn the lights off?" I love that question! I just love it! You are possibly the sweetest and most considerate thing I've ever met!

5. I love how every Sunday you drive me to church and remind me that you will be keeping your eyes oen as I say a prayer. And how every night you snuggle in bed with me while I read you the scriptures and how you stay close when we say our prayers. I love how you help me be close to my Savior and support me in my wild and crazy calling ;)

6. I love how you encourage me to be healthy and teach me what is best to eat and what kinds of exercise is best. I love learning with you! Without your help I'd be that girl who eats a pint of ice cream every night because, hey! I'm already married!

7. I love that you like reading my blog and stalking me on facebook- a girl loves to be stalked by her hubs every now and again. You always make me feel wanted and like you're still falling in love with me and a little more obsessed with me every day (that sounds weird, but you know what I mean).

8. I love the way you sometimes leave me silly notes on the table/mirror/car anywhere! It helps me remember that I'm loved even when I'm not with  you. I keep all those notes and read them once and a while.

9. I love the way you let me dream and dream with me. We dream about our house on the lake and our adventures in Africa and med school and Europe and puppies and getting out of Provo and being real life people and being in love forever and ever and always. I love it.

10. I love that you let me cry and cry over nothing and just hold me tight and tell me everything will be ok and you squeeze me to death every time you see me and have to hug me at least 10 times a day or you're unsatisfied. I love that you love love as much as I do- I know because you like kissing my cheeks :) and that is a natural sign.

I love the way you love me Ben Otto! This really has been the best year of my life and I can't even imagine ever being without you ever,EVER, again.
I love you <3
Sydney Rose

Gosh DANG you're cute!

Portuguese sweet memories

Well....
Here I sit- being the laziest laze you've ever met. I have my laptop on my lap- my kindle by my side and the TV on playing "Extremem Makeover Home Edition". I have nothing to say for myself other than......I love winter?

Annnyywayyyy
Sunday was fast Sunday. And I had that feeling. The one where you are so grateful for such a great opportunity to fast for friends and family who need a little extra help from our Father in Heaven....but you are starving! So of course I decided that making food would help. What to make was the next question. I flipped through my family recipe book (got a good recipe that's just your? I'd Love it!) and found exactly what I needed-- Portuguese Sweet Bread.

This is no normal sweet bread- this is the most fantastically sweet, succulent, soft, chewy, melt in your mouth goodness bread.

When I was little my mom would make this gorgeous bread and I'd watch her big, strong hands knead the bread over, and over, and over. She would throw her whole body into that bread, concentrating so hard and pounding the dough until it was smooth and thick. Sticking her tongue out she would wave us all over and every girl would knead the bread- our much tinier hands punching the dough until it seemed our arms would fall off!

Then she would roll out the soft goop and shape it into the beautiful snail shell shape we knew meant heaven in your mouth. After brushing a little egg over the top it would go into the over and for the next 30 minutes we were tortured by the wonderful scent of Portuguese sweet bread.

Though my experience was not nearly as romantic, it was full of delicious memories! Oh yeah, and I finally figured out why my mom always insists on stirring and kneading by hand--perfect way to get rid of excess energy, anger, annoyance...and hunger :)

Fake trees

In case the major influx of colored lights and pine smells didn't clue you in- it's Christmas! I'm thrilled about this because last year we didn't really get to celebrate Christmas the way it should be celebrated due to a major event in our lives....marriage. So this year we have started out right!

We got a little fake tree-stuck it together like pros, fluffed out the plastic branches and plugged it all in.

Then we got all of our ornaments together to check out what we had and put the hooks on. If you look carefully you can see Ben's ornament this year......Darth Vadar in glass.

But the REAL treats were these little jewels. Somehow All of Ben's homemade ornaments got to our house and you can bet your bottom they are ALL on our little tree. I could not stop laughing and insisting that we give them all a place of honor. How can you resist that precious face?? And the popsicle sticks? Dear heaven help us TOO cute! They all made it one though some a little further to the back than others  for Ben's sake :)

With a silver star on top our tree was finished! We immediately proceeded to wrap presents, string lights around our entire living room--turn them on--and sit enjoying our handiwork while Christmas music played softly in the background. Very romantique :)

Decorating our tiny little hole in the wall made me a little homesick, but mostly it made me thankful for Ben and his intense love of the holidays. He actually appreciates my decorating and fussing and helps! Dear gosh I love him. He has been so busy and studying like a mad man but he always takes time to help me make our hole feel like home. Love that man.

Joyeux Noël mes amis!

A Very Otto Thanksgiving

What a great Thanksgiving Break! Ben and I have literally never been so lazy in our lives and it was fantastic! Though I'm not sure if it could have laste much longer without us both losing our minds- we still had a lovely time with lots of family!

It reminded me of a lot of things I'm newly thankful for this year.

First that I married this gorgeous, loving man! I kind of look scary in this pic-- but look how cute Ben is! And that Bear shirt...you really can't beat it! He is everything and more i could have ever asked for and he came out of nowhere to sweep me off my feet. Plus he's hilarious and laughs at the dorky things I say, and is just as gross and filled with 5th grade humor as I am :0 ahh, tru luv.

Next is this beautiful sister I acquired! She is a true beauty with a heart of gold and a lot of sass. I think you have to have that as the only girl of 8 kids--that's a lot of brothers. I have had the best year getting to know her and having an older sister instead of being the older sister. I love it! and I love her!

I'm also thankful for these two :) It has been so much fun to watch their relationship go from acquaintances to love birds. They have been our good friends, early morning helpers and constant source of hilarity.

Ah, the cool kids :) I'm so grateful for these two and their ever techy, ever athletic, and ever matter-of-fact attitudes. They are precious (yes, precious) and have taught me one of the best ways to stay in love=actually doing things together! I'm pretty sure they have the most fun out of all of us.

Oh- and did I mention this handsome Jack? The guy who makes bizarre dinners with me, dries while I wash dishes, sings me soulful tunes at any and all times, wears this shirt......, helps me stay healthy, while indulging in my Farr's addiction every so often, eats everything I cook and then some, squeezes my guts with hugs and claims that I have the most kissable cheeks?

Oh that's right, I did! My mistake. Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Dessert Obsession

SO, as you may or may not know, I have an obsession with Baking. I could bake something new every day and be completely happy about it. Well recently Ben and I both signed up for our Ward's "Spooky Dessert" contest. WE got a little excited about this one and I insisted that it not only look spooky, but taste delicious. So I settled on a cake because I love baking and decorating cakes. Red velvet was the only obvious option because of the bloody insides.

Then I found a gorgeous design on Pinterest that showed a cake with a spider web that looked incredibly elegant. to make it creepy we added a glow in the dark spider army.

Then we decided it wasn't quite creepy enough. So we took a trip to DI

Found these gems- Barbie and Ken. Sanitized, washed, soaked.

Barbie attacked by spiders, wrapped in a web (Ben's idea), and dismembered by the little killers(with help from some family dog I'm sure because she only came with one leg...).

Not only did our "creepy" cake win 2nd prize, but it was all eaten up (minus the parts with the barbie :/)

Win.

Alan's Birthday

The best thing about having a million brothers is the birthdays. There is literally one every couple months. It's fantastic! There is always a reason to celebrate!

So off we went to Park City to play with Alan and Catherine. It was a night sure to be full of pumpkins, family, and divine Asian Foods.

 Oh Cheese Fondu- How you vex us.

 so many fun foods for the hot pot!

 Happy Birthday Alan!

 There was a very intense competition with the punkins.

 Eric was even there as a treat!

 Laura finished her traditional pumpkin first!

Buuutttttt, mine was pretttttty awesome.

They love me.

I think my students love me.
In the appropriate way (per Ben's request).
Today I assigned a Journal write where my 9th graders had to critique ME!
EEK!
I was scared to say the least- kids can be cruel! But there was nothing mean to say at all! They were kind and loving and proclaiming that my class was their favorite!

I'm tired- all this love is wearing me out.

Pumpkin Weekend ( ' )

Pumpkins! Fall! Cool weather!
Oh how I love thee.
I could really carve, eat, and find pumpkins all day every day. I love the cool weather they thrive in and the pulling them fresh from the vine and the way you can gut them and no one even gets hurt! It's a little violent but I just love gutting that pumpkin! It's a fix for a rough day let me tell ya! Anyway we really had a fantastically fallish weekend and I thought it appropriate to document it here!

It started out with shortbread, caramel, chocolate salted cookies...

Then we went on a little trip to the pumpkin patch! Of course we had to travel through the sketchy corn maze first.

We went with Spencer & Abbey! love them!

We found lots of great pumpkins amongst the dead, yet devastatingly gorgeous, sunflower field.

 We tried to take a cute pic....

 Really we did!

Finally- a normal one. Eh- we look better goofy :)

 Then we started the carving of said pumpkins- Abbey and I couldn't stop taking pictures.

 Ah, the driveway- classic. Oh yeah and my hott hubs. Gosh he's cute.

 I made a mummy.

nananananananana BATMAN!

 Best punkins EVER!

 THE WHOLE GROUP'S!

 We ended the pumpkin weekend with a delicious pumpkin/bread pudding dessert made by my beautiful sister in law! Looooved it!

Wednesdays

I should be grading papers right now- but really, who wants to come home and read 7th grade papers? Honestly not me.....why did I choose this profession? Someone remind me please?

eh hem-You picked this career because every day when the silent girl comes up to you and points at the bookshelf you stare at her until she finally says "books" yes, "I need another one"
Halleluja yes you may have another one!
And when you read that 7th grader who's boy crazy and silly and talks about all the "smokin' hot boys wakeboarding" in the world she's created for herself.
And when your students say "Thank's Mrs. Otto- that was a really fun class!" and you believe them, because it was fun! Even if your throat hurts so bad from speaking and the desks are in disarray from being moved here and there for who knows why.
And when your'e leading a guided imagery and all your 9th graders start swinging their legs to the beat of 'outside sounds of the forest' playing over the speaker.
And mostly because being with 7th and 9th graders makes you feel like you too are a 7th or 9th grader- and that feels great, fun, hilarious, devastating and dramatic all at the same time.

So then you go home and after doing the dishes for you, your husband decides you need to go on a date to the halloween store.

 It turns out, the two of us really do still act like 7th and 9th graders in real life.......

This is why I married this guy.

Witchy Weather

I'm obsessed with the weather right now.
If I died right now I would be so happy.
There is a gorgeous storm floating around outside just hovering over the valley with big dark clouds and a chilly breeze. The wind is howling like the tornado weather at home and the air feels soft and cool as it sifts itself through my windows. The smell of heavenly hamburger soup is swirling around my tiny kitchen mixing with the cool air and drowning out the sounds of cars and horns and life. Except for the sound of tires sloshing through shallow puddles of cold, clear rain water. Even the power lines that hang unceremoniously right outside my window are dancing in the witchy wind along with the swirling gold and red leaves marking wind patterns as they fall. It smells, clean- but old- like the leaves are weary from hanging onto branches, but still full of color which they wear boldly.
I'm obsessed with it. I wish a black cat would walk right in front of me, right here in my tiny kitchen. Brush along my leg and meow. I would die happy.

someday I'll live in a real place.

Horrible Blogger

Well It's Official-

I'm a terrible blogger.

These past three months have been the wildest, craziest, maddest, most terrifying months of my life.

In July we went to Alaskaaaaa

 There was lots of nature.

 Some fantastic hiking

 A moose!

 Furry undies....

 Funny outfits....

Plus we saw HUGE whales whilst Kayaking! WHO DOES THAT?@?!?



Then in July/August we went to San Diego for Alan and Catherine's wedding celebration.

 The wedding was great, and the luncheon fantabulous!

 But then we went to the ZOO! Just Me and Ben!

 And this Tiger!

 I was in heaven obviously.

Plus I had a renewed desire to own a large cat....or a zoo.

In September I started my new job as an English Teacher- I don't have anything positive at this moment in time to say about it so I'm not going to say anything at all other than, I've never been so tired and distressed in my life.


So we went on a giant hike in Zion's national park!
We hiked the treacherous Narrows and almost lost some of the party- but thankfully we all made it out alive!

 After a massive sleepover in a marvelous 5 star motel (oxymoron) with lots of candy and ice cream- the day started out as a beautiful freezing day and everyone (mostly) was happy!

 Even the cows were happy!

 We had to take a few breaks- but thankfully there were conveniently fallen logs to accomodate us.

 I did some Yoga to stay centered.

 And this sexy hiker stayed close!

 Abbey and I found some neat hiding places.

 And there were lots of fun obstacles!

 Ben and I found a hole.....

 and then realized we had to sacrifice our dryness for that picture...

 But it turned out that we were soaking by the end anyway.

 The rock formations were amazing and gorgeous.

 The scenery breathtaking....

mmm, see what I mean?




And now here we are in October- my very favorite month. I've decided to have a better attitude and to be happier. And to write more, so hopefully that transfers to this bloggy blog.